By David Nagel
The same five teams will play finals for the third consecutive year after Officer ended Tooradin’s dreams of a finals campaign with a 14-point victory at Starling Road.
While still a mathematical possibility, the Seagulls look consigned to the scrapheap with Beaconsfield, Berwick, Cranbourne, Doveton and Narre Warren set to fight it out for this year’s flag.
And it’s the two losses against the Kangaroos that have hurt the Seagulls most dearly.
This time there was no stunning revival from the Kangaroos, who led at each change and rode some efficient kicking at goal to victory. They led by 12 points at half time – 8.0 to 5.6 – as injured Seagull Nathan Page gathered his troops in the goal square at the Princes Highway end of the ground … delivering a harsh reality.
“How badly do you want it boys, our season is on the line,” Page said, before the Seagulls spread to their positions for the third term.
The Seagulls came out full of vigour, a massive collision between Michael Hobbs and Officer youngster Jesse Longmuir set the scene, before Nick Lang kicked truly – capitalising on a rare turnover from Ben Tivendale – to cut the margin to seven points.
Lang tried to inspire the Seagulls, taking four bounces a short time later, but the great work of Sean Roach on Julian Suarez, James Waldon on Andrew Dean, and Nick Redley – who took care of the O’hAilpin boys, Aisakie and Setanta at centre half back – helped the Kangas reject any Seagulls advances.
And they had all the answers the Roos.
Skipper Matt Clarke was superb up forward for the home side; kicking a third-quarter goal and helping emerging forward Luke Callander kick two more. Goals to Lang and Suarez saw the Seagulls trail by 12-points at three quarter time.
Tooradin coach Lachie Gillespie tried to reassure his side that all was not lost.
“You look worried boys, don’t be tentative, back yourselves and show some intensity in the first five minutes and set the scene for the quarter,” Gillespie told his team.
“You blokes have got the talent, it’s all about mental belief … do you blokes believe you can do it? Drive it with your voice, sacrifice for each other and don’t look back, let’s go.”
Gillespie’s words initially fell on deaf ears, with goals to Longmuir – who had bounced back bravely from that third-quarter collision with Hobbs – and Blair Allan, kicking the Kangas out to a 26-point lead. Suarez answered quickly with a soccer goal, before Longmuir appeared to settle the issue at the 12-minute mark of the term.
But the Seagulls found an extra gear, with three goals in five minutes to Dean, Suarez and Paddy Chin cutting the margin to eight points at the 22-minute mark.
The Seagulls had all the momentum, but a costly turnover from Luke Edmondson stopped the roll in its tracks, the Kangas settling with goals to Callander and Allan to secure a hard-fought victory.
Clarke finished with four, just taking the points against interleague team-mate Luke McKenna, while Callander showed all the signs of a promising forward in his three-goal display. Longmuir and James Canty provided the run, while big-men Redley and Dylan Chapman won their battle against the dangerous O’hAilpins.
So where does Tooradin go from here?
Dean kicked four and Suarez three, while Lang provided a spark when it was needed most in the third term. Josh Muling and Matt Livermore were effective through the midfield, while McKenna stuck to his guns superbly on Clarke.
But – and it’s hard to put a finger on it exactly – there’s still something missing with the Seagulls!
A solid five weeks of footy was frittered away with this loss, and they will now need to pull a rabbit out of the hat against Beaconsfield, Berwick or Narre Warren to be even a miniscule chance of playing finals.
It would be great to be proven wrong – but it’s hard to see it happening.
